I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bone vise for selectively receiving, gripping, and releasing a broad range of sizes of bones or bone fragments to be operated upon in the course of a surgical procedure.
II. Description of The Prior Art
Bone surgery has become ever more commonplace. It encompasses the complete replacement of a bone system or the relatively minor repair of a bone which is intended to remain in the patient. Diseased or accidentally fractured bones can now be repaired to enable a patient to recover to a state of use which would have been difficult to imagine just a few years ago. Such repair surgery includes autograft surgery according to which voids and defects in the bone of a patient are filled with other bone obtained from that individual. If the bone is obtained from another individual, it is referred to as allograft surgery. In either instance, the implanted bone acts as a lattice work for new bone ingrowth. Usually transplanted bone revascularizes, that is, it accepts and supports the growth of new blood vessels.
Up to the present time, there have been no known devices intended specifically for the support of a bone during a surgical procedure. Rather, it has been customary for nurses, operating room technicians, or assistants to hold a bone while the surgeon operated upon it. In some instances, they would hold the bone as best they could with their hands. In other instances, it was known to pass wires through one or more holes drilled in the bone, with the wires being held to stabilize the bone during the surgical procedure. However, these past efforts have not been satisfactory because the bone or bone fragment has not been held sufficiently steady to enable the precise sculpting or other operations needed to be performed by the surgeon. Additionally, manual holding of the bone was unsafe to the holders who are subject to unintended but ever possible cuts and abrasions by reason of the knives, drills and other cutting instruments used by the surgeon. This has become a major concern in light of the recent AIDS controversy.
While vise and chuck arrangements are widely known and used for a variety of other purposes, such known devices are not readily adaptable for firmly holding bones and bone fragments during a surgical procedure.
Typical of such known devices are U.S. Pat. Nos. 871,962, 925,212, 941,831, 1,022,761, 2,448,881, and 3,952,384. A known device having orthopedic application is disclosed in USSR No. 660,671 which is said to reposition and to place into compression bone fragments by means of a plurality of pivotally mounted levers. One end of each of the levers supports a thrust needle for insertion into a bone and the other end is captured at the periphery of a nut. As the nut is screwed on its mating shank, the thrust needles are moved relative to the bone fragments being operated upon.
Although the foregoing devices satisfied the goals for which they were each intended, none specifically addressed the problem of providing a device of simplified construction for firmly holding a bone or bone fragment outside the body during a surgical procedure and including the following features: solid, yet portable; rapidly opened to receive the bond and rapidly closed to firmly grip the bone; autoclavable; and easily operated.